2018 Yards

After 10 years of deterioration from the housing bubble and lack of HOA covenant enforcement, considerable progress was made in 2017. Unfortunately more improvement needs to be made this year to bring our community up to Lake Nona standards. The townhomes will make an additional investment again this year in sod and we expect the single family homes to do the same. Please cooperate with the Board, Committee and Management Company to help improve the curb appeal of Beacon Park.

The tentative schedule for yard inspections is as follows. This may change as we switch to Titan 06/01/18. Check the website for updated information.

The Board is considering a reduction of the 2017 $500 yard fine. To qualify the yard must pass inspections 2 and 3 above.

2017 Yards

The HOA will be replacing all deficient townhome grass this spring/summer, single family homes are required to do the same.

The Fine Committee has completed the yard inspections and ranked the grass (0-50) based on color, dead spots and weeds. You must score at least 30, anything below that will require improvement.

Yards must be looking respectable by mid April to avoid $100 (one hundred) spring fines. The entire yard is important but our focus is on the grass in the front yard. Yards not rectified by summer inspection (07/08/17) will receive $1,000 (one thousand) fine in cycle 12.

The Truth about $1,000 Yard Fines

There has been a lot of misinformation spread on Next Door about the $1,000 yard fines.

Claim: $1,000 fines were sent to first time offenders with no warning

This is absolutely false. A newsletter was mailed to all owners in January giving sufficient warning about the upcoming yard inspections. 80 yards failed the spring inspection in March and received the standard $100 (one hundred) fine notice. The Fine Committee was extremely lenient in waiving these initial fines, and it was communicated very clearly to all 80 in email and in person that the fines would escalate if their yard was not corrected by the summer. Of these 80, 33 improved their yard sufficiently to pass the summer inspection, the remaining 47 of these 80 did not improve their yard (repeat offense) and were issued the escalated $1,000 (one thousand) fine notice as promised.

Claim: Kevin is being petty and targeting individuals with yard fines.

This is false, the yard fines did not come from Kevin, they came from the Fine Committee which personally issued the rankings during the inspection. You would have received these fines even if Kevin was not on the Board. Kevin actually lobbied the Fine Committee for leniency and requested an extra 45 day extension be given during cycle 12. Kevin and the Board granted yet another 30 day extension due to the hurricane.

Claim: Not enough time was given for people to correct before the fine is imposed

This is absurdly false. The $1,000 fine notice was mailed in July and to this day (late October) no fine has been imposed. These fines will not be imposed until after the cycle 13 hearing on Sat Nov 04. That is over 3 months to correct. Our goal is to get as many yard corrections and waives as possible. Over 30 yards have been replaced as a result of our efforts and this is a huge win for our community. UPDATE: Ultimately 16 yards were imposed the reduced fine of $500 at cycle 14 hearing on Sat Jan 13, a full year after the initial newsletter and 6 months after the $1,000 fine notice was issued!

Claim: The Fine is outrageous and egregious

This is an opinion, and certainly contains some element of truth. But consider the following before passing judgment.

Many of these fines are for absentee landlords who have no intention of ever fixing their yards. This keeps property values down for all of us. Some of these owners are simply taking advantage of the housing bubble and will make over $100K by flipping without investing much effort, so we felt $1,000 of that profit should stay in the community and go towards fixing the yard.

Issuing $100 yard fines every month would amount to $1200 for the year. You can understand it is much easier for Rizzetta and the Fine Committee to issue one fine for the whole year instead. This is actually easier for you as well since you can waive the entire $1,000 fine with one hearing.

Many of these yards have been deficient for 5 years or more.

In prior years, the Board and Management Company received countless complaints about the condition of the yards, and rightly so. We took these actions at your request. Warnings were ineffective so we escalated to fines. Now that the fines are established we believe warnings will be far more effective and we have already taken steps to increase warnings and decrease fines.

Claim: Kevin has the power to lower the fines

False with caveat. This would need unanimous Board vote. The Board feels it is not necessary to lower the fine amount since the violator already has the power to lower the fine all the way to zero simply by fixing the yard. If the fine was lowered to $100, most people will simply pay the fine and not fix the yard, and that defeats the purpose of all our hard work. UPDATE: The Board has voted to lower the yard fines to $500.

Editorial comment: The townhome HOA dues are about $150 higher per month than the single family homes. Essentially the townhomes are paying a $100 "yard fine" each and every month! Using these dues, considerable work has been done on the townhomes to improve the curb appeal for the whole community. It's time the single family homes start carrying their weight. Deficient yards will not be tolerated, you must honor the agreement you made when you joined the HOA. The Board and Management Company have a duty to enforce the HOA governing documents, just as you have a duty to abide by them. This will hold true no matter who is on the Board and no matter which Management Company is in place.

UPDATE: As stated above, the Board has voted to lower the $1,000 yard fines to $500. Many members have expressed concern about such a large fine, and it is reasonable to take such feedback into account. The $500 amount is justified for the following simple reason, these yards failed 5 inspections therefore the fine is $100 per failedinspection. So the fine amount is not an arbitrary number and is in line with our other violations ($100 per instance).